Veteran Essebsi is Tunisian Prez

Tunis, December 22

Veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi has won Tunisia's first free presidential election, official results showed on Monday, the final step in a transition to democracy after an uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

But rioting broke out in one southern city, with police firing teargas to disperse hundreds of youths who burned tyres and blocked streets to demonstrate against the victory of an official from Ben Ali's old guard.

Essebsi beat rival and incumbent Moncef Marzouki with 55.68 per cent of the vote against 44.32 per cent, the results showed.

A former official in Ben Ali's one-party administration, he has recast himself as a technocrat and his secular Call for Tunisia party profited from the backlash against the country's first post-revolt Islamist government, which many voters blamed for turmoil after 2011.

Protests erupted in Hamma after Essebsi declared victory in Sunday's run-off. "Hundreds of angry youths upset over Essebsi's victory declaration set fire to tyres in the streets of the city while police fired teargas and arrested several youths," Hamma resident Ammar Giloufi said. "All shops are closed. They are chanting 'No to the old regime'." — Reuters